Why Having A Strong Brand Is So Important For Attracting New Customers

For your business to grow, attracting new customers is crucial. While repeat customers will obviously help your company to sustain itself, it will remain running on the spot if you fail to add to that customer base. Effective branding can be a powerful tool for reaching out to new people – but why?

So, the good news about this situation is that you shouldn’t have to fret about how you will cope if your businesses sees a sudden upturn in customer numbers; you should be able to cater for those new customers without too much trouble. But the conundrum remains: How can you get that upturn in the first place? Through effectively putting together what has been called a “branding triangle”.

The three major parts of a “branding triangle”

Some people might think that they know for definite what branding is. They might picture the distinctive Apple logo or the red and white colours of the Coca-Cola packaging and think that branding is about a simple but memorable logo and well-designed website. However, this is more to do with visual branding, which far from paints the whole picture of branding.

In his book, Dearborn has explained that there are three main components of branding, each of which form what he calls the “branding triangle”. These include the brand identity, which covers such visual aspects as your logo, colours and uniforms. Personalised badges that we offer can certainly help you to success here.

Another aspect is the content management – this refers to the promotional and sales materials and strategies that are used to keep customers interested. So, the company’s website, blogs, podcasts, social media and brochures are all accounted for here. The third part of the branding triangle is customer service; this is how your firm delivers its products and/or services in relation to the customers’ requirements and expectations.

Entice new customers with a “freemium” offer

Dearborn insists that, in order to attract more customers, you must consistently and routinely excel at all three aspects of the branding triangle. These aspects, he says, underpin a brand’s reputation, word-of-mouth and value. However, someone who has never previously bought from your company won’t be able to judge its customer service until they buy from your company – a classic chicken-and-egg situation. You can overcome this by offering something small for free.

Whether it’s free samples, discounts, 2-for-1 offers or something else, you want to offer something that can genuinely pique a new customer’s interest before persuading them to become a paying customer. If a particular offer seems to be attracting lots of interest, do your best to avoid messing with a winning formula.

Where To Invest Your Marketing Budget This Year

Marketing is a vital pursuit for any business seeking to more widely communicate what it offers; however, the precise ways in which your company should promote itself could still seem like something of a mystery. There’s certainly a broad choice of marketing methods available to you, but how many pounds should you put towards which ones? We’re here to help clear your confusion.

Therefore, it’s a good idea for your company to turn to another that can provide it with a website the design of which can automatically adapt to displays across a range of sizes. That way, you don’t need to fret over whether your target customers are most commonly accessing the web through huge iMacs, medium-sized iPads or small iPhones; the website can accommodate them in any case.

A well-managed email marketing campaign

Exactly because so many people now routinely use mobile devices in place of desktop machines, email marketing can prove wonderfully effective. As soon as an email arrives in a potential customer’s inbox, that person could get a notification on their smartphone and, quickly following this, load up their email app to see what exactly this new message is.

A thoroughly active social media campaign

If your business doesn’t already have a marketing person with particular expertise in using social media, it needs to invest in one. That’s because, globally, there are currently about 2.2 billion active social media users – and that figure is continuing to rise.

You could also put some money towards researching which specific social media platforms your target customers are especially partial to. This can help you to devote more of your advertising resources to channels where those people are most likely to be exposed to your promotional efforts.

A brand identity that remains highly consistent

Whatever mediums your company uses for promotional services, whether those mediums are posters, business cards, leaflets, websites or anything else, you should make sure that your company’s unique brand identity is consistent across all of them. This means not only sticking to the same logo and colours, but also communicating essentially the same core message.

Thankfully, ensuring this can be easy when it comes to the staff badges that your company uses. You can get personalised badges in any of a wide range of physical shapes and finishes when you choose to source staff badges from our company, Imagin Badges. Also, you can save lots of money when you order those badges in bulk – and you can then spend that saved cash on other marketing initiatives.

What Industries Require A Name Badge?

This isn’t an entirely straightforward question to answer – as different companies even within the same industry will have their own standards and requirements and, therefore, will have different stances when it comes to name badges. As a general rule, however, industries with lots of customer-facing roles tend to make staff badges a requirement, if not necessarily for everyone within the company. Here are a few examples of sectors where these badges are especially often mandatory.

Retail

There are likely particular shops that you visit pretty regularly, perhaps even daily or at least weekly. Now, if, upon visiting these places, you often see the same members of staff and they are all sporting name badges, you will already know how convenient those badges are for helping you to get to know those workers – particularly, and obviously, by name.

It can be especially common to see retail cashiers wearing these name badges, which makes sense. After all, they are probably the store’s employees that you need to speak to most frequently, and so it can be nice for you to easily familiarise yourself with their names.

Hospitality

The hospitality industry covers many different fields – including lodging, airlines and eateries, all of which include institutions that might make staff badges a requirement. We have previously mentioned how flight attendants can help put many people at ease on planes with the help of name badges – while, at many restaurants, these badges could also be worn by waiters, who customers could perceive as friendlier as a result, and waiter’s assistants charged with clearing and setting tables, assisting waiting staff, and more.

In a hotel, too, you could find such badges warn by the receptionist behind the front desk and the caretaker whose job is helping to prepare rooms for the next occupants. At bed and breakfast accommodation, such badges can make it easier for the guests to get to know staff. Fritz Gubler, President of the hospitality advice portal eHotelier, has drawn attention to the popular belief that hotel staff should wear name badges, as this can assist in – to cite just a few examples – quality and standards control, safety and security, brand recognition and emergency management.

Healthcare

It’d be an understatement to say that a doctor’s surgery or hospital is a place where you want to feel safe and reassured! A doctor, nurse or medical assistant can wear friendly-looking badges to more easily keep their patients feeling comfortable. These badges also bring a greater feel of security and professionalism to the premises, and this effect obviously further helps to keep the patient as relaxed as possible.

Catering

A large hospital can also have a large number of catering staff – and, indeed, many catering staff members in general, not just those who work in hospitals, can also be required to wear identification badges. These include people who cater for restaurants, schools and other outlets that serve food. Thankfully, for these people and many others who require name badges for their work, we offer easily personalised badges here at Imagin Products.

Why Name Badges Are Important In The Retail Industry

When working in retail, wearing a name badge, you might think, has a very simple purpose: it lets customers know what your name is. However, the benefits of that little badge can reach much further than simply enabling a customer to refer to you by name. Below, we look closer at why your retail business can reap surprisingly large returns when all of its staff – not just the customer-facing ones – put on name badges.

Despite what we’ve just said, staff badges can obviously provide a great opportunity to extend your firm’s visual branding. This, in turn, can more firmly imprint it into the minds of your customers. However, these badges can also promote your firm in more subtle ways that you might not previously have thought of. If, for example, you arrange to have the badges always shown on a particular side of an employee’s uniform, this can subliminally boost your company’s reputation for tidiness and attention to detail.

These staff badges can help not only customers, but also the people who actually wear the badges. When everyone throughout the company – not just the customer-facing staff, but also the managers who rarely come into face-to-face contact with customers – wear name badges of the same design, everyone can feel more like “part of the team”. As a result, staff at all levels can feel more driven to improve the company.

The Importance Of The Photo ID Badge

It’s easy to get a photo ID badge, complete with not only your name and photo, but also your company’s name and branding, from us at Imagin Products. However, you might be wondering why you should order photo ID badges for your organisation’s staff. What merits do such badges have over other staff badges lacking photo ID? Well, for a start, the following…

And, indeed, with all of you working for the same organisation, which will ultimately have one overriding mission which all staff are required to pursue, why shouldn’t the staff show their uniformity visually as well as mentally? Photo ID badges can also bolster confidence about the organisation’s security – as, should a worker come across someone on the premises not wearing a photo ID badge, they could more confidently approach this person and ask why they are there.

Allows for different tiers of access

Various institutions can keep information that is so sensitive, they want only very particular members or levels of their staff to have access to it. Hospitals and government buildings are workplaces where this kind of security system is imperative. Thankfully, photo ID cards are inexpensive to distribute for ensuring such security. With photo ID cards, only particular people can gain access to particular rooms – and here are more details about why…

A highly effective weapon against fraud

Some organisations keep confidential or sensitive information that only certain employees are permitted access to. For these organisations, the possibility of someone getting their hands on one of these workers’ security ID badges before using it to gain access to this information simply cannot be contemplated. But couldn’t these staff badges easily be copied? Probably. But there’s one good reason why even making a realistic copy of a badge could remain pointless…

Copies of regular badges, even personalised badges, could be easily used because the cardholder’s name could be the sole differentiating detail. However, a copied photo ID badge can be ineffective because it could be very easy for other people in the workplace to notice if the face on the card and the face of the person carrying the card do not match. Therefore, theft levels can remain at a bare minimum when photo ID badges are widely used by personnel.

Lots of options enabling highly personalised badges

When you turn to us at Imagin Products for your photo ID badges, you can delight in choosing from a broad range of customisation options. Would you prefer double or single sided print? An attached lanyard, clip/strap or badge reel? Or maybe even just badges without any kind of holder? We can cater for all of these preferences and more.

Which Badge Fixing Is Right For You?

Key to the appeal of purchasing badges from us at Imagin Products is the broad range of customisation options. These options extend to how the badges can actually be fixed to clothing. Badge fixings aren’t a minor point of consideration – so, which of the fixings that we offer should you opt for? Here is some advice to help you to decide.

Standard pin

As we provide standard pins on our badges at no extra charge, they could be especially attractive for the very budget-conscious. Furthermore, in this instance, cheap doesn’t mean poor quality; thanks to the strong adhesive hold of our pin-on badges, you shouldn’t have to fear them inadvertently falling off.

Magnet

The most popular badge fixing here at Imagin Products, we reckon that this is largely because they avert the necessity of nuisance pin holes and clip marks on clothing. Plus, they are as strong in their attachment as you would expect from magnets, while the magnetic strips don’t visually distract from the badge’s overall outer appearance.

Combination clip

A combination clip is so-called as it includes both clip and pin attachments. This makes a combination clip highly versatile; it can be effectively used on many different types of clothes and overalls. Also, it has the benefits of both a clip attachment and a pin attachment; you don’t have to make trade-offs by settling for just one or the other.

Rotating/locking combination clip

This is basically a more feature-rich version of the above-mentioned combination clip, in that it comes with the same attachments, but additionally can be rotated 360 degrees while attached. “Feature-rich” doesn’t strictly equal “better” in all instances, however – as this clip is, perhaps unsurprisingly, more expensive than the basic combination clip.

Lanyard

A lanyard has unique promotional advantages compared to other badge fixings. It is, for example, physically more prominent than other fixings – to the extent that it can be easily noticed by other people, such as potential clients at conferences. And anyone who notices your lanyard is more likely to notice the information on the attached card.

Badge reel

If you already have a card holder, you might most favour a badge reel as your badge fixing. That’s because each badge reel that we offer – and we do offer badge reels separately, as well as in combination with closed and open faced holders – comes with a retractable cord that can be attached to a card holder.

How To Look Professional While Attending Conferences

You have probably already been busy noting down dates for various corporate conferences set to take place in 2016. Many of those conferences could, however, still be weeks or even months away – and you should take advantage of this by thoroughly preparing for them. Your attire for the events certainly shouldn’t go overlooked here; here are some of our tips for how you can project the desired professional image at each conference that you attend.

What do you think you will be expected to wear?

This is a worthwhile question to ask yourself before you start planning any part of your wardrobe. After all, it’s possible that a particular event you are planning to attend already has specific guidelines for dress. Furthermore, what clothes you should don will likely differ depending on whether you will be presenting or merely watching and networking at the event. However, once you have taken all of these factors into account, you can start thinking about how to insert a bit more individuality into your appearance.

Female speakers – opt for clothes that accentuate your curves

Are you a woman who will be speaking on stage at the event? You have to consider that, with so many eyes on you, you will want to look in a way that is clearly visible to everyone in the room, from the front row to the back row. You will also want to look good if you are captured by up-close live video – but, crucially, still subtle and respectable, not garish.

Forbes lifestyle writer Kristina Moore has previously advised, for conference wear, “clothing that enhances or creates an hourglass shape to avoid your body frame looking like a solid block.” She has also recommended “colours, prints, and designs that make you stand out appropriately and do not clash with the stage backdrop”.

Avoid going overboard with the accessories

There are particular accessories that could not only prove of great practical use at the conference, but also actually help in portraying the sought-after professional image; an Apple Watch with a non-distracting watch face, perhaps, or carefully-placed pin-on badges indicating the business or industry that you represent. However, as a general rule, you should keep accessories to a minimum, and avoid anything that looks too informal, like nose piercings or eyebrow piercings. Any jewellery that you wear should be subtle in look. And, of course, we at Imagin Products can supply subdued but attractive personalised badges.

The Pros And Cons Of Brushed Gold

Gold, it seems, has many positive connotations. It’s a precious metal, businesses routinely aspire to the “gold standard”, and now even many smartphones and tablets are available in the colour. But all of this might not be enough to warrant your company choosing a brushed gold background for its employees’ pin-on badges, as we at Imagin Products can make clearer…

Gold – not always perceived well…

Gold is a culturally renowned colour, often associated with high achievement. High achievement should certainly always be in your company’s sights; however, not every individual that sees your staff wearing gold personalised badges could readily associate the colour with this. To some people, gold can seem attention-seeking, which doesn’t always have positive implications.

How numerous people could perceive brushed gold badges on your staff could depend largely on the field that your company operates in. Context is crucial, so think carefully before choosing brushed gold.

Bring a more prestigious image to your company

In many instances, however, the brushed gold badges that we can offer should bring great elegance and sophistication to the appearance of your workers. There are some workplaces, like offices and luxury hotels, where these qualities can be vital for creating the right kind of atmosphere. There’s a good reason brushed finishes are common in jewellery…

It also helps that the brushed finish is, certainly in comparison to a standard finish, scratch-resistant. This means that, even if your staff are involved in hectic work where keeping an eye on their badges could be pretty far down their priority lists, you can expect the badges to continue looking great. Worn-looking badges could, after all, be mistakenly considered to represent a tired business.

Prestige, nonetheless, can come at a price… or two

One downside of a brushed gold badge is that you may not be able to order one with as elaborate a design as you’d prefer. That’s largely due to costs and mechanical limitations. If you’re particularly eager for badges with complexity in design, you should consider our option of conference badges; however, brushed gold is not an option with these badges.

Our brushed gold badges also tend to be at the higher end of the price range. For example, brushed gold is not available with our photo ID badges, which are second only to our conference badges in low starting price.

Putting A Name To The Face: How Badges Provide A Friendly Atmosphere

It’s in the interests of everyone involved with your business – management, employees and customers – for you to cultivate a warm and friendly environment for them all. This kind of environment can boost everyone’s enjoyment and, as a result, turn more potential customers into paying customers. But you may have underestimated how much name badges can help in creating the right atmosphere.

Put yourself in a customer’s shoes…

If you walked into a retail outlet that you’d never previously visited and, straight away, were approached by a smiling employee asking if you required any assistance, it would certainly give you a positive first impression. We all like to feel special and welcomed. Furthermore, judging by research, you could perceive that worker as especially friendly if you caught sight of a name badge on their uniform…

Research conducted across a number of years by Shopper Anonymous has revealed the surprisingly large difference that name badges can make to the staff-customer relationship in the retail and hospitality fields. The most fundamental and startling statistic unearthed with this research – which took account of 116,000 mystery shopper reports – is that, when a variety of companies introduced such badges for all of their workers, customer satisfaction ratings were boosted by a bumper 12%.

Some eye-opening revelations from intriguing research

Why such a big difference? It seems that, quite simply, many customers really appreciate knowing who is serving them. Many mystery shoppers in this study were eager to see name badges to better enable them to identify staff if they weren’t wearing uniform. Customers are bound to approach staff more often if they can actually distinguish them from other customers.

However, it looks like even staff who routinely wear uniform could benefit from putting on name badges. That’s because the mystery shoppers also reported placing greater trust in staff sporting such badges. A relationship more strongly based on trust should naturally be friendlier, too.

These are great reasons to invest in staff badges…

… and, even if you run a relatively large business, you shouldn’t overly fret about the cost of buying such badges, should you turn to us at Imagin Badges. We offer photo ID badges, for example, from as low as £1.45 each. Our generous bulk discounts mean that those badges can pay for themselves much sooner than you might expect.

20 Job Roles Where A Name Badge Is Vital!

We at Imagin Products are delighted to provide a range of name badges for your company’s employees in the workplace. But what companies should use staff badges? Basically: customer-facing companies. Here are many examples of jobs where such badges are crucial.

Waiter. A waiter can appear friendlier when asking a customer for their restaurant order if they do so while wearing a name badge.

Waiter’s assistant with the responsibilities of clearing and setting tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher and helping waiting staff.

Healthcare professional. A doctor, nurse or medical assistant can better reassure their unwell patients when they wear friendly-looking personalised badges.

University staff. They might wear a name badge, rather than a uniform, to publicly identify as staff.

Police officer. Out on the beat, a police officer can, thanks to name badges, foster closer and warmer relationships with members of the communities that they serve.

Hotel staff, including a receptionist behind a hotel’s front desk and a caretaker who restores the former condition of rooms in preparation for the next occupants.

Staff at bed and breakfast accommodation. Key to the appeal of bed and breakfast establishments is that they can each feel like a “home from home”; name badges can therefore help make the staff even easier to get to know.

Retail cashier. Most of us regularly shop at the same places, so it can feel good to better get to know cashiers, who you will especially often come into contact with, by their names.

Flight attendant. Many of us would feel uncomfortable on flights… if it weren’t for flight attendants. Name badges further help to put people on flights at ease.

Food caterer in a restaurant, school or hospital cafeteria, or other outlet serving food.

Lifeguard. If ever they must come to the rescue, everyone will know what name to call them…

Clerk. They could sometimes face customers outside of their administrative duties.

Fitness class instructor. A name badge can prevent them having to keep re-telling their name to many individual members of the class.

Soldier, sailor or marine. In other words, a member of military personnel.

Manager. Yes, it’s not necessarily just customer-facing staff who should wear badges within your business. That’s because, as The Small Business Blog wisely states, if your company adopts name badges at all, it should adopt them for all of the staff – to give the image of consistency and reliability.

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